As Congress moves to consider renewal of the main federal education law this summer, the administration has been working behind the scenes to incorporate language that would give the U.S. Department of Education centralized control over K-12 curriculum across the country, including a national test that all students would take multiple times per year.
This morning, 118 educational and other leaders released a manifesto opposing these efforts. You can read it and add your signature at www.k12innovation.com.
Readers of First Things might be especially interested in an essay I’ve written, appearing in the online journal The Public Discourse this morning, about how nationalizing control of K-12 education would impact the dissolution of American culture:
Suppose you were nostalgic for the culture wars of the 1990s. Most of us have been relieved over the past decade, as the level of cultural savagery has begun to recede, and Americans with different religious and moral viewpoints haven’t been quite as eager to viciously tear each other apart as they used to be. But suppose you missed the height of the culture wars, and wanted to find a way to bring it all back. You could hardly do better than to turn over control of K-12 education to the national government. If the 1990s were a culture war, the 2010s will be a culture Ragnarok.
May 9th, 2011 | 3:44 pm
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May 10th, 2011 | 2:09 am
So should we think that state control of education would not lead to such dire consequences? Exactly this sort of thing is already happening in CA. The problem seems to have less to do with state vs. federal control of education than it does with a growing educational–industrial complex (to extend Eisenhower’s worry).
May 10th, 2011 | 7:26 am
We tend to get the public-education system we “deserve.” Live in a broken culture–endure a profoundly broken public education system.
It obviously can’t be fixed by money, which we’ve been trying to do, with spectacularly negative results. Pour more money in, and it only fails more quickly. (As for the results, as Yogi said, “you could look it up.”)
Interference from the top down is not the cause–the culture is the cause–but it does aggravate the problem, and aggravates the deficit at the same time. Yes, we should oppose this latest power grab by Central Planning. Better yet, dismantle the whole Dept of Education.
Now to the root of the problem. What have you done (including pray) for your culture today?
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